Nobody plans to lose their gadgets, but anybody can make a few moves ahead of time to up their chances of getting their stuff back, whether with the help of good-natured finders or subtle tracking tools. Here are our favorite post-theft tools.

10. Replace a Lost or Forgotten Charger for Free

How many times have you left a wall charger behind in a hotel room? If your answer is "zero," well, you're a lucky person. Most of us, though, know the easily forgettable nature of gadget chargers. If you're ever without yours—because you left it at home or left it at the last hotel—simply ask the front desk to look through their "cord spaghetti". Most hotels (and car rental agencies, and some airlines) have a good number of BlackBerry, iPhone, and other device chargers sitting unclaimed under the counter, and they're all too happy to lighten their stock.

No matter how conscious you are of your phone, things get lost. If you've lost your phone or…
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7. Ensure You've Got Alternate Emails and SMS Verification Set Up

Maybe your gear never makes its way back to you. Perhaps you can't track it, or wipe out its data remotely. The one saving grace you can ensure you have is master control over your web-based email, documents, and other data. If you're a Google user, make sure you've set up your account so you can recover and reset your password via SMS, and perhaps enter in a spouse or close friend's number instead of your own, since your phone can go missing. Most other web ecosystems—Hotmail/Windows Live, Yahoo, AOL—offer similar account recovery tools, with alternate email address and SMS options. Take the three minutes now to set it up, and save yourself the 24-hour headache later.

Google just added an SMS option to its account recovery system, letting anyone who forgets their…
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6. Prevent Theft in the First Place

We're obligated to point out that the best way to hide your stuff is have it out in plain sight, but it's also not a bad strategy to make it so ugly nobody wants to jack it. Those are among our favorite ways we've seen of protecting your stuff from theft, some of which have a strong post-theft application, too. If a thief looks at your gear and finds it too hard to use, or thinks it's likely being tracked, they might just leave it where it is. (Image via mitemite)

We've offered up a wealth of tips on locking down your data, but old-school, straight-up…
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5. Include a Great Photo Message on Camera Memory

If you found Andrew McDonald's camera, the first set of photos stashed on the memory card of the Australian children's author tell a story about how and why to contact him. Not that stashing a text file on the card with your contact information on it isn't also a great idea, but being seen as a human being by your lost-object finder, rather than an anonymous person with an unknown amount of inconvenience, is a strangely powerful tactic. (Original post)

Want a better shot at getting a lost digital camera back? If your finder has any heart at all, a…
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4. Encrypt Sensitive Data on Your Hard Drive

You probably don't need to encrypt everything on your hard drive, because there's not a lot to learn from your Half-Life 2 sessions. But your home folder, your financial documents, your Dropbox, and other spaces have stuff you'd rather not let into the wild. We like tools like TrueCrypt for encrypting your data the right way, but modern systems also come with built-in tools, like Windows' BitLocker or Apple's FileVault (which we compared in a showdown). Whichever way you go, keeping your essential data locked down from those without passwords is a huge pay-off that you hopefully never have to experience.

3. Install a Remote Wipe for Your Smartphone

There's a chance you may never find your laptop or cellphone. There's an even greater chance that somebody who's now got access to your email, address book, and personal files can find something to take advantage of inside that device. So set up your system so you can wipe it remotely. On Android, BlackBerry, Symbian, and Windows Mobile phones, there's WaveSecure ($19.90/year), and Android users can also try Norton Security's beta app (comes with 100-day subscription, pricing unavailable), the free service iTag, or craft their own personalized phone tracking tool with the Tasker app. iPhone owners are kind of stuck with Apple's $99/year MobileMe service, which can both track and remotely wipe out your phone's data, but it does seem fairly effective.

iPhone users can pay $99 per year for a tool to find their lost iPhone. On Android, just under…
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2. Cover All the Bases to Get Your Thumb Drive Back

If you name a file on your portable USB drive "If Lost Contact Steve Smith (321) 555-1234," maybe you'll find the right person and get your files back. Then again, you could just create a folder named "PORN," then fill it with suggestively named image files containing nothing but an image of your contact information. That's just two of the four solid methods for getting your thumb drive back that we've previously rounded up.

While your best bet is to not lose your thumb drive in the first place, yesterday our readers…
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1. Install Prey for a Set-and-Forget Tracking System

Hardware-tracking tool Prey has a lot going for it from just a simple glance at it. It's an open-source app, it's available on most any computer system, along with Android phones, and it's free. But best of all, it's the perfect system for lazy owners. Install it, authorize it with Prey's web site, and then you do nothing until it's actually stolen. Flip the switch on the site, and then Prey gets to work grabbing webcam pics, desktop screenshots, all kinds of system and network data, and a geo-location fix, if possible. You can escalate to system lock-downs, loud alarms, warning messages, and some browser data wiping, if you'd like, but you can also just wait for someone to wise up, or make a very identifying mistake. (Original post)